But it didn't. It was the empire's elaborate subterfuge to control the noghri that did him in. They didn't change sides because of Leia, but because she revealed that the Empire was the one that destroyed their planet.

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I like the idea of Palps clocwork oranging the Noghri who killed him much better.

Pretty interesting stuff when it goes into the original Star Wars' screenplay structure:

Since winning the Oscar for Sunshine, Arndt has lectured extensively on the art of storytelling at numerous writers’ retreats, like the Hawaii Writers Conference in Maui and the Austin Film Festival, always featuring a lengthy and detailed explanation of why the original Star Wars’ ending is so creatively satisfying.

At these talks, Arndt always tells attendees that Star Wars’ enduring appeal has to do with resolving its protagonists goals’ nearly simultaneously, at the climax of the movie. In the comments section of a discussion about a Star Wars talk Arndt gave at the Austin Film Festival in 2010, one attendee of the seminar notes, "Arndt stated that if a writer could resolve the story's arcs (internal, external, philosophical) immediately after the Moment of Despair at the climax, he or she would deliver the Insanely Great Ending and put the audience in a euphoric state. The faster it could happen, the better. By [Arndt’s] reckoning, George Lucas hit those three marks at the climax of Star Wars within a space of 22 seconds."

Indeed, in the third act of Star Wars, as Arndt explained to his young screenwriting Padawans at the 2009 Hawaii Writers Conference, its central characters' main goals all are met on pages 89 through 91 of the original Lucas script: At the crescendo of Star Wars, a spectral Obi Wan urges, “Use the Force, Luke,” and he does, thus reaching his inner goal (fighting self-doubt to become a hero). Han Solo reappears (meeting the philosophical goal of overcoming selfishness with altruism) to shoot down Darth Vader, which allows Luke to use the Force to mentally guide his shot and blow up the Death Star (outer goal and inner goals simultaneously met).

He's also writting the script for the second Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. So if this is true he'll have gotten to write for two of the biggest franchise of the last couple decades.
EDIT: Or 3 if you want to count Toy Story.

Re: the above extensive quotes, it's a good sign that the guy understands the structure of a solid story so well that he can look at a story and see its skeleton. Ultimately the problem with the prequels was that the leg bone wasn't connected to the hip bone and the head bone was missing altogether.

Quentin Tarantino is not interested. This is a good thing because, A-- He wasn't going to asked anyway, and B-- as much of a Tarantino fan as I am, I wouldn't want him within a light-year of a Star Wars movie.

Tarantino exercises too much autonomy to ever get involved with a project like this. Snyder's visual aesthetic would totally jar with the one Lucas established in the first six films of the series; it's unlikely that Disney would want someone with his reputation to be involved with the series. Better to get a competent director who won't divert attention from the series itself.